This morning over the fence the guerrilla garden was all of a frenzy, the helianthus being whipped hither and thither as Storm Francis started to make his presence felt. The odd thing was the wind was warm, and it was rather marvellous to stand in it. Exhilarating even. Left one feeling well swept in the mentally cobwebbed department.
Now though in early evening we have lowering cloud banks over the Edge and intermittent lashings of rain. Francis is still blustering about but only with 40 mph gusts, or so the weather folks tell me. We’re lucky here in inland Shropshire. Out on the coast there have been 70+mph winds and much flooding and damage. It makes me wonder with all this year’s upset and turbulence: did some entity out in the universe open Pandora’s Box back in January?
Tish Farrell 
We’ve had some big winds a couple times in the last couple weeks accompanied by impressive lightning and lots of thunder, but no rain. I looked up our average rainfall a few days ago and found it to be 9″…per year. 🙂
When someone says, “Look how windy it is”, it reminds me of this well-known poem:
Who Has Seen the Wind?
By Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
janet
Thank you for that poetic ‘blast’ from the past, Janet. A long time since I read Christina Rossetti. But 9 inches of rain per year, goodness. We’ve had buckets of it in the last few weeks. Not at all usual in August either.
”It makes me wonder with all this year’s upset and turbulence: did some entity out in the universe open Pandora’s Box back in January?”
It’s just that darn butterfly again!
The top image is a cracker. You captured the essence of the gale beautifully. Dare I day, a photo with plenty of gust – o.
😉
Whoa there, Ark. You almost blew me away with your gust-o. And as for the butterfly, maybe that’s it. We’ve just forgotten that the universe is chaotic because we like all to be neat and tidy and safe. T’was ever thus. Our responses have a lot to answer for – if that doesn’t sound too circular an observation.
Yes…it does seem the box has been opened. Good photos of the wind.
Thanks, Beverly.
Sunflowers captured dancing in the wind, well done.
Thank you, Sally. The sunflowers seem to have survived the ‘dance’. Good on them.
A very un-Augusty August!
It certainly is. Got a sweater on this morning.
Crikey!
Yep. Well a bit later I was definitely over-dressed.
Still blowing a hoolie here! But most of the heavy rain fell during the night with intermittent sunshine and showers all through the day. My poor plants don’t quite know which way is up!
All is a bit mashed about here this morning. I’m yet to go to the allotment to see what’s happened there with my climbing beans.
The Pandora’s box explanation makes sense.
I think it does!
Lord, Lord! I knew a Pandora once. A pretty English young woman.
Now about that box? Yes, I think someone opened it. Musta been Johnson et al.
Stay safe Memsahib. Kwaheri sassa
Definitely some bad guys tampering with said box. Trouble is, they have no idea how to close again. All best wishes from U-turn-every-5-minutes-UK.
Likewise…
Those tempestuous winds can create havoc, yet still be exhilarating!
All that energy whirling up!
What wonderful wind photos! I always want to capture that, but you did it really well. Congratulations!
Thank you, Marilyn. You’ve bestowed ‘a feather in my cap’ on the windiness front.
Love that first shot, Tish! All calm here 🙂 🙂
Calmness is good. We have some here now this morning, though v. cool and rather gloomy. I keep thinking I’ve woken up in October.
Tssk! I have a carob been photo for you but can’t work out how to share it on here 😕💕
Facebook? I’ll make an effort to go there 🙂
No- I was sent it on WhatsApp and I can’t seem to copy and paste or anything useful. Sorry! 😦
Never mind, Jo. Will just do a web search 🙂
Presume you don’t WhatsApp? Sending hugs anyway 😘💕
You presume right, Jo. There’s only so much social media I can cope with 🙂
Your first image is wonderful Tish. I can totally feel the wind in it.
love the wind swept sunflowers! all is calm in my part of the world but Louisiana and Texas are in a frenzy as well with winds up to 110 mph this morning.
Good to hear you are wind-free, Lola. The storm in Texas sounds terrifying.
Gorgeous capture of the wind.
And I think you are right about the box being opened, although I’ve been thinking that actually someone has let the Horsemen out!
Thanks, Becky. And as for the Horsemen – Yes, them too. All kinds of malignant entities abroad.
If only our political leaders were listening and observing!
It’s hard to know what precisely they are all up to. They certainly don’t understand either science or statistics.
And don’t seem to care that they don’t either 😦